Is this the biggest muskie ever caught?

John Grover paused for a picture before releasing this monster muskie. Credit: Smokey's on the Bay Baitshop, via the Green Bay Gazette

It just might be. The Green Bay Gazette reports that in May of this year, local angler John Grover came into Smokey’s on the Bay Bait Shop claiming he’d hooked a 64-inch muskie while fishing the Bay.

Big fish story? Maybe. But when Smokey’s owner Jeff Tilkins asked for the size, Grover showed him photo proof. “When he showed us the picture, I could not believe it. There it was, and just look at the body. That fish had at least a 30-inch girth, there is no doubt in my mind about that,” Tilkens told the Gazette.

Grover usually targets walleye, and wasn’t familiar with what’s typical – and what’s not – when it comes to muskellunge. He snapped a picture, and then let the monster muskie go without weighing it. World records require a verified weight to make them official. Grover and Tilkens estimate that the Green Bay muskie was at least 64 inches, beating the world record by a half inch.